Summary of RM's live [2025/12/06]
TKinsights (a reliable translator) made her translation of RM's live free on her blog and added some really useful notes explaining how the tone comes across. I highly recommend reading the whole thing if you want to understand what Joon was talking about.
To put it briefly, it's not nearly as dramatic as some people are making it out to be, but he did have some serious things to say and shared some of his frustrations and worries. I've added a summary of key points below.
RM unpacks a lot.. but as always ARMY is happy to listen 💜🫰🏻
You should really read the whole thing, but here's a brief summary:
Namjoon doesn't feel like he should speak "on behalf of the team" in the same way he used to, because they're all (grown) individuals with their own lives and opinions. This isn't something dramatic, he's still the leader, it's more like a natural shift as they get older.
He knows people speculate about them a lot, and say "what if they disband?" over one issue or another, but honestly there were plenty of other situations in the past [behind the scenes things we don't know about] which could have caused them to disband, but they're very thankful to still be together. [He didn't talk about anything specific, but generally there has been constant noise/drama for most of their career.]
He was just with the members filming and having fun. They chose this line of work and they're very happy and feel lucky to do it. They naturally had to get used to the constant scrutiny that comes with their position.
Some people have been questioning why they didn't do group promotions in the second half of 2025. It's not that they didn't want to, but there were some situations that caused them to postpone things a little. He doesn't want to explain, it's not his story to tell [might be personal life stuff, not our business]. He wants to ease people's worries while also drawing a clear boundary about this.
It's been so long since they last performed together, he really wants to perform, but the preparations are taking a bit longer than expected. It feels pressuring and frustrating. They wanted to get back to promoting quicker, but they have good reasons to wait. He wants to make that clear. [He didn't explain, but it sounded like they've had a lot of criticism about this, which he was responding to... also I feel like they've been doing so much already??]
He wishes they could announce specific details about the album and the comeback quicker, but since Big Hit/HYBE are huge publicly traded companies now he doesn't have that kind of control. It's not like back when Big Hit was a small company, he can't just do what he wants at all times, he still has the status of a 'worker' in that system.
He shared some worries about struggling with insomnia, and being critical of himself [tone wasn't super dark, more like "everyone struggles with self-criticism"]. If he's struggling to take care of himself, can he take care of the team too? They have worries/pressure about how to do this huge comeback well.
He has worried so many times over the years if they would need to disband, but the reason they are still together and continuing is because they have so much love and respect for each other, and for ARMY.
Of course, he's not a perfect person, he's made mistakes and he'll probably make more mistakes in the future. One of his flaws is over-thinking everything, but the members help him with that. If he can still make work that reaches even one person, he wants to keep going. ARMY help too. If he hadn't met ARMY he might have lived his life "like total trash honestly." [talking about how he grew and changed through being in BTS]
BTS is growing and changing, ARMY is growing and changing too. He can't say "we're just the same as always, so love us just the same as always" because they will always be changing into something new.
Since he gives a lot of speeches and so on, he thinks a lot about what it means to be a 'positive influence'. He's thinking a lot about morals and ethics, he's not sure how to articulate his thoughts, but he's not someone who can easily shrug things off. He says "I'm aware that saying this kind of thing on live could come back to bite me later..." and "people who dislike me will dislike me no matter what I say, right? [Saying things like] I never liked him, he acts all nice and smart but..."
Anyway, changing topics, they're thinking about how they should switch up content strategy for the algorithm. Should they be doing more shortform videos etc? But he wonders if at 30+ it feels a bit like trying to be "one of the kids."
He's trying to get his drivers' license! He's going to take the test! It's crazy because his younger sister has one, even his little cousin has one, but here he is in his 30s... [he was so happy about the drivers' license it was cute!]
He's been practicing dance again, alone and with the members, "it's just so fun, goofing around on stage is so fun." Honestly more than anyone he really wants to get back on stage, it's driving him crazy.
He called out people who keep asking "where's [x member]?" when one of them is doing a live!! He said stop doing that please, it's upsetting!! Him doing a live is not preventing anyone else from doing a live, the other members have phones and can stream whenever they want. [!!!!!!]
He can't/doesn't want to stop being in BTS. They're just about to start back up again. He has the will to face the fight and keep going, whatever might happen. He's looking forward to next year so much, he wishes he could just blink and be there already!
They have to live their own lives. They need to be able to live their own lives to keep making music. If they just keep putting out content and only living in front of the camera, the music that comes out "would not be imbued with the scent of humanity... like what would be behind those lyrics, right?" You have to play and live and be a whole human being in order to then be able to share and connect with an audience.
He said some complex things about the nature of love and how it relates to making art, connecting with an audience, and being seen/understood as a person. You should really read the full post to understand what he said.
They will definitely be back. Whether people like the form they come back in, there's nothing they can do about that, all they can do is their best.